1928-2017
The Final Journey
Ref: 857
Signed l.l.: Platt
Oil on canvas, 35 ¾ by 28 ins (91 by 71 cm)
The unconventional nature of much of Platt’s subject matter took him to scenes that included the washing of fish, mending nets, boiling crabs and the filling of a shell oil tanker. Many of these subjects also appear in his fine lithographs from the 1950s. Like Reginald Brill, the artist whose work is most closely comparable to Platt at this date, sometimes he chose the most unlikely of subjects. One such example is this funeral scene, a wonderful snapshot of one of life’s most important events, focussing on detail that ranges from the seemingly banal to the profound, throughout never distracting from the essential poignancy of the scene itself.
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Richard Platt (1928-2017)
Platt studied at the Royal College of Art where he was a prize winner before going on to exhibit throughout the 1950s at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the London Group as well as at numerous commercial art galleries. He also participated in the prestigious British Art 1900-1955 exhibition that toured Scandinavia in the mid 1950s. He had a one-man show at the Leicester Galleries in 1956. Platt was naturally attracted to the everyday, scenes mundane to many eyes and yet the source of inspiration for much of his best work which included Coronation Decoration from 1953 (now in the Government Art Collection, inv.2462) and Funnels, Grimsby (Bradford Museum and Art Gallery, inv.1958-007). In about 1960 Platt abandoned painting altogether pursuing a successful career as a musicologist that included significant research into English music of the eighteenth century.